


Nothing Important Happened Tonight

by Dizzy28



Category: Tron (1982), Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, set before the 82 movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dizzy28/pseuds/Dizzy28
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Important Happened Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> Shameless pre-slash silliness. I love dumb!Flynn + exhasperated!Alan too much.
> 
> And yes, the summary is a Dr Seuss quote, read the fic and find out why c:

It's one of those hellish nights, dozens of problems arising in his code for each bug fixed, and Alan feels the white letters of the terminal swim before his vision. He screws his eyes closed, and takes the first sip of his forgotten, now lukewarm, coffee, and grimaces when he realises he forgot to add any sugar.

The digital watch on his wrist tells him he has to be back at work in three hours, and he wonders if the ten minute walk home is even worth it. A quick stretch on his chair - and the pain that shoots down his back - tells him it most definitely is, and he turns off his terminal before reaching for his coat, neatly hung by the door to his cubicle.

Alan's shoes squeak loudly on the tile floor as he makes his way to the elevator. He can only hope sleep comes easy tonight. His security program has been making him antsy since he started development on it, and he's not quite sure why anymore. It could mean a well-earned raise, sure, but Alan has never lost sleep over a programming project before.

And it still needs a name, too.

The elevator comes with a ding, and Alan is too immersed in his own thoughts to realise he's not alone in the cabin, until it's too late to back up.  
He stares dumbly at the man for a beat, and then turns back to the closing doors, clearing his throat awkwardly.

Kevin Flynn.

Travelling in _this_ elevator.

At the exact same time as him.

It's not the first time Alan wonders just _what the hell_ he did in a past life to deserve this treatment in the current one.

He presses the button for the ground floor and stands awkwardly by the doors. He sneaks a look over his shoulder, and Flynn is just lounging against the mirrored wall, aviator sunglasses resting low on the bridge of his nose. And Flynn is exactly the kind of person who wears sunglasses inside a building at four in the morning. A jock and a little genius rolled into one.

He knows Flynn, of course, the whole building does. It's enough that he's the youngest programmer to ever make it into a position of importance in research and development, but the guy walks around like he owns the place. He probably will in a couple of years.

The elevator is reaching the fourteenth floor - has it always moved this slowly? - when Flynn finally moves from his perch, his hand coming down on Alan's shoulder, his face appearing on his periphery vision over his other shoulder.

"You park your car _outside_ , man?"

Alan frowns at him, and looks back at the panel before realising. Of course, Flynn has pressed the button for the sub-basement. He can just imagine the kind of car he drives. Some flashy convertible, or maybe one of those obnoxiously loud motorcycles. Alan doesn't even have a license, not that he's about to tell that to Flynn.

Alan just shrugs, and Flynn looks at him for a second before his lips turn up in a wide grin, and he extends his free hand towards Alan, the other still perched around his shoulder.

"Kevin Flynn."

"Oh, I know."

 _Ah_. Big mistake. Flynn's grin only grows wider, and he gives a dramatic gasp, his hand moving to clutch at his leather jacket, over where Flynn's heart would be if he was human, Alan reflects, and not a walking Doctor Seuss character.

"You know me? In this cold, impersonal office environment? I'm touched, man!"

Flynn chuckles, and it's almost contagious, but Alan's smile is forced and awkward, and the silence stretches until Alan realises what's missing.

"Oh. I-I'm Alan."

Flynn nods, and laughs again, giving Alan's back a pat before looking up towards the floor indicator over the elevator doors, and Alan follows his gaze in time to see the light flicker slightly, and with a soft thud the elevator comes to a stop. Between the third and second floor.

" _Oof_. So close."

Flynn's voice holds too much amusement for the nature of the situation, and Alan frowns at him.

"What?"

Flynn grins at him again - in fact, Alan starts to wonder if his face is capable of loosing that smug grin - and finally disentangles himself away from Alan, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket, rummaging for a moment before retrieving a small red package, cigarettes, and clutches one between his teeth.

“Technology, man. You can never trust technology."

He's lighting the cigarette by the time Alan gets over the ridiculousness of the situation.

"What are you doing? We'll suffocate!"

Alan Bradley never panics, but he gets very damn near this time. Flynn just smiles, and gives his cigarette a long drag, talking through the smoke.

"These things have all kinds of smoke vents." Someone like Flynn shouldn't feel as trustworthy as he does, but he oozes confidence, and Alan's shoulders sag slightly. He turns back to the elevator doors, willing them to start back up again, to no avail. With a last flicker, the overhead lights turn off, and the cabin grows dark except for a soft, red, emergency light.

Flynn is back at his shoulder again, and Alan realises he's extending a cigarette towards him. "Go on, you look tense."

Alan frowns at Flynn, but takes the cigarette all the same, clutching it inexpertly between two fingers before putting it between his lips, taking a drag of it after Flynn has lit it, the smoke making his throat itchy. He coughs awkwardly and hopes the fact that he has never smoked before isn't _too_ obvious. Something in the way Flynn sniggers tells him it is.

"You know, I saw a movie exactly like this last night," Flynn drawls, and shoots Alan a lazy, but stupidly charming, smile,  "on cable."

Alan cocks his head at him. "Did the people in the elevator survive?"

Flynn lets out a long laugh, fixing Alan with an intense look, taking a long drag of his cigarette before replying. "Oh, they _thrived_." He wriggles his eyebrows, and Alan feels colour rise to his cheeks even before he realises what kind of movie Flynn is referring to.

He looks away and does the only thing he knows will work against certain thoughts Flynn is provoking. He fidgets and thinks about code. Lots of code. Lines and lines of code. Basic, C, Pascal, FORTRAN. He goes through every line in his security program's base code, hell, even thinks of a name for it, all in the time it takes Flynn to finish his cigarette.

Flynn stretches and makes a sound at the back of his throat, and Alan wonders, once again, why bad things happen to good people. Of all the people to be stuck in an elevator with, he gets the most detestable and enthralling idiot in ENCOM.

"You know," Flynn's voice drags him from his thoughts again, and he looks back at him in time to see him retrieving what looks like a small remote control from his pocket, "for a software company, the security in this place sucks."

He presses a red button on the remote, and the elevator gives a rumble before returning to life, starting to move again after only a moment of hesitation. Alan can only stare as Flynn smiles at him.

"H-How..."

Flynn shrugs, and the elevator reaches the ground floor with a thud. Flynn holds the doors open with one hand, reaching with the other to open Alan's coat and drop the remote control in his inside pocket.

"Here," Alan looks down at his coat, and up again when Flynn reaches towards his hand and takes the half-finished cigarette from his fingers - one less thing Alan risks being addicted to, at least, "in case you ever find someone worth spending half an hour in a tiny, dark room with."

Alan walks outside the elevator, his face still wearing a dumbfounded expression. He turns back in time to see Flynn wink at him, his own cigarette clutched between his teeth.

"I miss you already, Bradley."

The doors close and Alan stares at the grey metal for an extra minute before turning around and walking outside. He's halfway to his home when he realises he never told Flynn his last name.


End file.
